Activist Carl Starr has filed a lawsuit against the El Paso County Sheriffs Department for what he called a violation of Fourth Amendment rights, while others say racial profiling to find immigrants has become standard. [lawsuit]

Starr's lawsuit alleges that he was on a public El Paso County bus on March 21, heading from El Paso to Fort Hancock. He states that sheriff's deputies stopped the bus, telling the driver he had touched the white lane divider on the road.

"Plaintiff did not notice driver cross line," Starr's lawsuit states. The deputy asked for identification, but did not require Starr to show it, the lawsuit states.

"Deputy then asked six remaining passengers seated towards rear of bus if they had ID and said Papers, ID and the six said No/shook heads," states the lawsuit. The six were taken off the bus. "Plaintiff does not know what became of the six," the lawsuit states.

Starr is asking a judge to enjoin El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego from spending "Operation Linebacker" funds. Those are monies that were given to border sheriffs, who have said their workloads are increasing because of increased smuggling.

A sheriff's department spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit in a KFOX TV report on the issue May 26. [kfox]

In that report, the television station quoted San Elizario resident Ray Carrillo as saying that when he was stopped at a sheriff's department checkpoint, "they were asking for driver's license first, insurance next, and then if you have any papers. I am a U.S. citizen."

A couple of days earlier (May 24), KTSM TV aired a report that in which Horizon City residents said they had been asked for proof of citizenship at checkpoints.

"A spokesman for the sheriff says investigations proved those allegations unfounded, but Father Ralph Solis says he sees the proof every Sunday at his church," stated a report on the stations web site. [ktsm]

"What their investigation turned up I don't know, but I do know all the people that have come to me and told me in tears that they won't come to church anymore because of the checkpoints," Father Solis was quoted as saying.

Sheriff's department spokesman Rick Glancey told KFOX, "We are not involved in immigration law. We are here strictly trying to enforce Texas law," and KTSM reported that the sheriff's department claimed an investigation did not substantiate the Horizon City charges.

The issue has attracted statewide attention.

Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, sent Texas Gov. Rick Perry a letter El Paso questioning Samaniego's use of the "Operation Linebacker" funds, which totaled $376,500. Statewide, the monies totaled $10 million, split among the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition.

"Hinojosa expressed concern that people are being detained in both the roadblocks and the raids on a hunch that they "look" illegal. He said some residents have even complained that they were asked for a Social Security card as a tactic to figure out whether they were illegal immigrants," stated a May 23 Associated Press story out of El Paso. [article]

Glancey, the coalition's interim executive director and Samaniego's spokesman, dismissed Hinojosa's letter as politically motivated because Samaniego, a Democrat, supported Republican Dee Margo against incumbent state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, reported the Associated Press.

"The Sheriff's Department of El Paso has no legal authority to engage in immigration enforcement. While our nation must engage in border security and enforce immigration laws, the appropriate authorities are federal authorities, in particular the Border Patrol. What the Sheriff is asking deputies to do is engage in enforcement action for which they have no authority and exposing them to serious liabilities, both civil and criminal," stated Shapleigh's Web site, which noted that "In Texas, racial profiling like that is illegal under the penal code. We have asked the Governor to stop using state funds for racial profiling." [web site]

One of the 16 border sheriffs took a stand against the El Paso County roadblocks. In a McAllen Monitor story May 27, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño touted a new policy, modeled after one in Houston, that states: "Deputies shall not make inquiries as to the citizenship status of any person, nor will deputies detain or arrest persons solely on the belief that they are in this country illegally." [article]

The article states that the sheriff "wanted to make the department’s position unmistakable, even if it’s a well-accepted practice among most law enforcement agencies."

"If we deviate from this, we put ourselves in a litigious position," he was quoted as saying. "Everybody is offered equal protection under the law.

"That’s what makes this country so great."

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